AAC Communique is also on-line in the Newsletter Archive at www.aac.ab.ca/news.html

On Honour Rolls

What place do honour rolls have in a school's assessment, evaluation and communication practices?

Here is a recent inquiry from a school about the use of honour rolls: "As a staff we are approaching the end of the school year and wonder about the appropriateness or inappropriateness of using an honour roll system in our school. We have a concern that this practice of providing public extrinsic rewards may not be appropriate. What advice do you have for us?"

Here are views on this topic by assessment authorities (used with permission).

Jay McTighe

I don't have any "research" on this, but I have always thought that we should have honor rolls in 3 categories -- performance (i.e., achievement judged against established standards), process (work habits), and progress (improvement toward meeting learning outcomes).

I think that there is merit in honoring performance. By including these three factors, we would be honoring a range of learning-related factors. Such a system would enable lower achieving students who work hard and improve to be appropriately recognized, while not pretending that their performance is better than it is because they work hard.

Of course, to implement such a system would require that each of the elements be operationally defined. The performance component would need to be based on clearly established standards, common assessment/assignments and agreed-upon criteria/rubrics (rather than traditional "grades" as currently practiced). "Work habits" would have to be defined in terms of specific elements considered (e.g., completing homework), observable indicators and some agreed-upon scale. Finally, progress would be determined against a developmental/ longitudinal rubric of the sort found in literacy or in the British National Curriculum.

Ken O'Connor

I believe that we should emphasize intrinsic motivation and minimize extrinsic, but that does not mean that there is no place for honour roll-like recognition as long as it is fairly low key. I agree with Jay that a school should make the distinctions he identified and that whatever is honoured should be consistent with the school's vision/mission/belief statement. For instance, in Hawaii they report on what they call General Learner Outcomes (GLO's) and one school has a GLOSTAR list rather than an honor roll.

Tom Guskey

The challenge I see in matters such as this is not to fall into the trap of suggesting that all such recognition is bad. I believe that the research of Cameron and Pierce (1994, 1996)* points out the fallacies of that argument pretty well. I also believe that it is appropriate for us as educators to recognize "excellence." But a necessary first step in doing so, as you point out, is identifying in clear terms what "excellence" really means. The second necessary step then is to do everything within our power to ensure that as many students as possible meet those criteria, never being satisfied until "as many students as possible" becomes "all."

* (1994) Reinforcement, reward and intrinsic motivation: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 64(3), 363-423.; (1996) The debate about rewards and intrinsic motivation: Protests and accusations do not alter the results. Review of Educational Research, 66(1), 39-51.

AAC Web Site Works!

Here is a wonderful testimonial (used with permission) about the experience of a colleague from Wisconsin on the AAC web site (www.aac.ab.ca).

I had an opportunity to review the information on the website. What a fabulous resource! It provides great information about the critical components of assessment. Unlike the Assessment Reform Group and their "fan-like" graphic, the concept map of Assessing, Evaluating and Communicating provides a clear road map on the process showing how those critical components fit together. I much prefer your organization of the concepts. For classroom teachers, who usually like things more sequential, it is very clear and easy to follow.

I reviewed your AAC in a Nutshell document and found out that I would like to become a member! The Assessment Specialist Initiative is a great way to build capacity. Having the expertise within the school is so beneficial. I find that this is a critical barrier in my position as a district level assessment person. In our district we have done some restructuring so there are curricular specialists with assessment and data training (we are putting that into place now) at each building to try to bridge that gap. These people are teachers who are paid a stipend to serve in these roles. We have just selected the members. Startup for this Curriculum Leadership Council will start in August. Nevertheless, I found the information on the AAC site to be a wonderful resource. Are you finding schools taking advantage of it?

Further into the website, I did take a look at a few student assessment tasks. These are nice examples of connecting the concepts to standards to appropriate assessments to quality rubrics. I printed one to show teachers how strong the connections are.

The area I really appreciated was the guided book studies and all the supportive material. WOW! What a great resource for a professional learning community. The support material is really laid out in a easy to understand format. Even those who are not up on the latest assessment practices can easily use this information to grow. Frequently, districts will want to do a book study as an avenue for professional growth and collaboration. However, many people do not have the skills and knowledge to make a book study successful. Having the resources as presented on your website really takes the floundering out of the study. It's a great framework that can be built upon if the group wants to, but if not, it is wonderful as is.

Again, I so much appreciate the "test drive" you allowed me to have on your website. It gives me the vision of what can be. As I mentioned to you at the ASCD International Conference in Chicago, I believe practices in the US have just started to move toward the direction of assessment FOR learning that have been happening in the UK, Australia and Canada for some time. Unfortunately, the US has been so focused on assessment OF learning rather than what really causes student growth and success...assessment FOR learning.

Lisa Albrecht, Supervisor of Assessment, Research and Accountability
Sun Prairie Area School District
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin